Holger,That's a decent specimen and as soon as the Tucson show is over and I can find the time, Ill put it into the article. Can you tell us something about the mine, geology, history, associated minerals, how many specimens were found?

enjoy Tucson - Germany is hit by a spell of Siberian cold and the ground is frozen rock hard. But that gives me a bit of time to do some literature work:

Hesselbach Mine:Fluorite/Baryte vein at the border of Granite and Rotliegendes of about 1.5 m width. The vein is almost void of ore minerals except some iron minerals. Very good Fluorites with cube sizes up to 20 cms are known, colors were pink, blue/purple and green. Some Fuorite crystal were so clear that they could be used for optical purposes. There was some ancient mining in the area and on the vein. Modern mining reopened the mine around 1900 and operated the mine successfully till 1959 when low prices for Fluorite forced it to close again. While in operation the mine produced very good specimens of Fluorite and Baryte. For the Fluorite crystals combinations of octahedrons and codes were recorded. To find new mineral veins the miners in Hesselbach used dowsing even in modern times. Needless to say they did identify baryte veins in places where drilling/mining was not able to confirm their location. Minerals from Hesselbach were sold to famous dealers such as Dr. Krantz in Bonn and Maucher in Munich. Most specimens on the market nowadays come from later specimen mining at times when the mine was still accessible.

I don't know if this specimen is worthy but it is from the Frieberg District, Erzgeberge, Saxony, Germany. It came out of an old collection with that locality information. The fluorite is associated with white quartz and is 7cm by 8cm in size.

Dear Rock, lovely article. Under the section for Zehntausend Ritter Mine, there are 2 identical photos of purple Fluorite by R. Lang - one says 4.5cm and the other says it's 6 cm. Thank you for all the work. Becky

Really hard to determine exactly from which Saxonian mining field this specimen came. Freiberg is possible. Such yellow crystalls came also from Gersdorf. The fluorites of the Annaberg district (10000 Ritter) have mostly a darker colour. However I found similar fluorites also with quartz crystalls on the dump 139 in Lauta/Marienberg.

If you are not sure then make a picture of the back side but I think Freiberg may be true.

The rear of the specimen has a $1.50 price tag next to the number 4305. It might have been a Foote specimen.

The matrix seems to be massive quartz with disseminated micro sulphides with interspersed fragments of bladed barite in some areas. There is a 1cm layer of light brown limestone attached to the back of the specimen.

As far as I can see, it shows crystals with the very rare crystallographic form {731} , resulting in a scalenohedral shape, as described by E. Preuss, H. ZiehrSkalenoedrische Flußspatkristalle mit der Form (731) von der Grube Cäcilia/Nabburg. Zeitschrift für Kristallographie, 146, S. 131ff, 1977

As the mines and ore veins of this formerly very important mining area (silver in the middle ages and fluorite in modern times) are not well described in mindat I will try to add some data here. Even the standard literature is of not much help as it does not well represent the old mining and some information my have been lost over the centuries - Todtnau had at least two major fires that reduced the mining city to a village. Mining in Todtnau is old - the oldest known citation of Todtnau as "Totenuova" is from 1025. Mining is recorded from 13th century as the taxes have been payed to the monastery St. Blasien (1247). The settlement was raised to city status in 1283. At the beginning of 14th century there were around 300 working miners reported. The location of most of the old mines is not known, at least not by name. With the exception of the mine "Zur Schindelhalde" near Aftersteg. The big earthquake of Basel in 1356, which destroyed much of Basel also did great damage to the mining area in Todtnau, but it seems that mining industry recovered very quickly. The most important old mine in the area was the "Grube zum Gauch", with had a big waterwheel. Like in most other Black Forest mining areas mining did not do well in 16th century and ceased due to exhausted ore reserves and the 30 years war in 17th century. There was little mining in 18th or 19th century and only elevated interest in Fluorite lead to renaissance of the mining area in early 20th century. The second half of the 20th century was not a good one for the mines as Fluorite prices were falling and mining was becoming more expensive. The last mine in that area was closed in 1974. Mining there was always a bit difficult as the mines were in a region and often snow forced the mining activities to rest over winter.

Important mines were

Grube "zum Gauch" (Todtnauberg, 14th century)

Grube Maus

Grube St. Anna (Grube Fahl)

Tholusbrunnen (Silberberg)

Grube Baumhalde (Silberberg)

Kernerloch (Silberberg)

Grube Brandenberg: most fluorite specimens from the area are from this mine

Grube Rotenbach

Grube Liesbühl

The most common minerals from this mining area are Fluorite, Calcite,Pyromorphite, Galenite, Chalcopyrite and Baryte.

This time a rather rare locality: Grube Anton / Wieden. There is a lot of Tannenboden Mine stuff on the market but very little good material from Anton. This one I bought a few years ago from a local mineral dealer who specialices in buying old collection and selling the better pieces on mineral shows. I now live in Black Forest since 1997, but this is the first good specimen from that mine I was able to get my hands on. The coating with pyrite is a bit unusual for Wieden, but could be confirmed by comparison with similar specimens. A pity these mines are closed now. Imagine all the wonderful specimens that came out there in the 1950s and 60s.

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